Farms of the Auschwitz concentration camp

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Location of the farms in the Auschwitz concentration camp's area of ​​interest
Aerial view of part of the SS area of ​​interest by the United States Army Air Forces on May 31, 1944

The agricultural operations of the Auschwitz concentration camp existed from December 1941 until the war-related evacuation of the camp complex in January 1945 during the Second World War in German-occupied Poland . They were in the area of interest of the Auschwitz concentration camp , the largest of which was 40 square kilometers. The establishment of these farms was ordered by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in order to create a prime example of the future agricultural use of eastern areas occupied by the Nazi German Reich . After the local Polish population had been expelled, a total of six farms were set up under the direction of SS leader Joachim Caesar with attached sub-camps . Thousands of female and male concentration camp prisoners had to do forced labor in these agricultural production and breeding operations under inhumane and deadly conditions . Most of the prisoners deployed there were taken daily to work detachments from the Auschwitz I concentration camp (main camp) and the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp ; a small number were housed in the sub-camps of the farms. The working and livelihood conditions created on the basis of extermination through work varied depending on the activity, command and accommodation.

Beginning of agriculture at Auschwitz concentration camp

Soon after the establishment of the main camp of Auschwitz concentration camp, from mid-June 1940 to spring 1941 the local Polish population, with a few exceptions, was expelled from the area around the camp by the German occupiers. As early as July 1940, the locally responsible Higher SS and Police Leader Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski declared a restricted area within a five-kilometer radius of the camp in the course of these "evacuation campaigns", which eventually became the area of interest of the Auschwitz concentration camp . Initially, security-political aspects were decisive for the evictions, in order to prevent the escape of prisoners and help by the local population and to seal off the camp area from the Polish population. Increasingly, however, economic considerations also played a role in this context, as the SS wanted to use the area surrounding the camp for agriculture.

As early as the summer of 1940, the camp SS initiated the takeover of the possessions that were forcibly left behind by expelled Polish farmers. The management of the abandoned farms, the use of fallow agricultural land and the supply of livestock had to be carried out by mobile prisoner commandos as part of forced labor. A planned and extensive use of the area surrounding the camp for agricultural purposes began in the spring of 1941 after a camp visit by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler.

Planning and construction of farms

The camp commandant Rudolf Hoess put after the end of World War II in Polish captivity a written record of the Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler down that after the First World War had completed an agricultural studies. In this context, Höß described the following incident during an oral lecture to Himmler in November 1940 regarding the construction difficulties of the Auschwitz concentration camp:

“His interest only became active when I spoke about the entire area and explained it using maps. He was instantly different. Lively he went straight to planning and gave one instruction after the other or noted everything that was to be built on these lands: Auschwitz will be the agricultural experimental station for the east. There are opportunities there that we haven't had in Germany before. There are enough workers. Every necessary agricultural experiment must be carried out there. Large laboratories and plant breeding departments must be created. Livestock of all kinds and races that matter. […] Damming the pond farms and draining the land, building the Vistula dam, there are difficulties against which the abuses in the camp described first are a mess. In the near future he wants to see everything in Auschwitz himself. "

- Rudolf Höß on the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler during his imprisonment in Krakow in November 1946.

During an inspection of the Auschwitz concentration camp on March 1, 1941, Himmler confirmed his plan to set up large farms on the land surrounding the concentration camp in order to create a prime example of the future agricultural use of eastern areas occupied by the Nazi German Reich. Members of the Kattowitz branch of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Volkstum planned a German settlement landscape in the area of ​​interest as part of the National Socialist Germanization policy. In March / April of 1941 the inhabitants of the villages Pławy (German Plawy), Babice (German Babitz), Broszkowice (German Broschkowitz), Brzezinka (German Birkenau), Budy ( Vorwerk von Brzeszcze ), Harmęże (German Harmense) and Rajsko (German Raisko) distributed. The Polish residents were brought to the so-called General Government or had to move to Oświęcim (German Auschwitz) to live with relatives or to houses there, whose former Jewish residents were victims of Nazi persecution. In order to develop the site, prisoner detachments then had to work hard to demolish most of the buildings in the vicinity of the concentration camp in order to obtain building material for the expansion of the camp, as well as draining the swampy area and laying roads. As a result, construction teams consisting of prisoners had to set up a poultry farm in Plawy, a horticultural company in Raisko and farms in Budy, Babitz, Birkenau and Harmense. Sub-camps were later set up at the farms.

During the development phase of the large farms, Höss met several times with representatives of the local civil administration, with competing ideas about land use in the SS area of ​​interest and its limits. Two military farms planned by the civil administration for employees of IG Farben in Auschwitz-Monowitz (branch of the new Buna plant ) were not to be realized, as Höß explained at a renewed meeting in autumn 1941: Instead, Himmler's instructions were to create large estates at Babitz and Harmense and in addition, "in the south of the current concentration camp area and in the extension of this area in the Raisko area", "the creation of four farms of around 300 acres each is planned as model farms".

In the course of the constantly expanding Auschwitz camp complex, the planning of agricultural construction projects was the responsibility of the Agriculture Department, but the central construction management of the Waffen SS and Auschwitz Police was responsible for the corresponding designs and their implementation on this basis. On 17 July 1942, Himmler was accompanied by the Chief of the SS construction management in the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (SS-WVHA) Hans Kammler and the Gauleiter of Upper Silesia , Fritz Bracht a second time to Auschwitz to inspect the warehouse complex. First of all, camp commandant Höß gave the visitors information about the structure and condition of the camp complex using maps. Then Kammler gave a lecture to the central construction management using plans and models about planned and already started construction projects in the area of ​​interest. The group of visitors gained an overview of the entire area of ​​interest, including the farms and the corresponding infrastructure work. During his inspection, Himmler also witnessed the gassing of Dutch Jews in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp . In November 1942, Kammler and the Agriculture Department held a conference at the Central Construction Office in Auschwitz about the expansion of the farms. In this context, Kammler put the "prisoner deployment" in relation to the "progress of work". As a result of this consultation, construction projects such as the establishment of a “milking and protective shed” and a “foal yard” were decided. In addition, the construction of a planned duck house, which was classified as too cost-intensive, was rejected. The member of the Central Construction Office, Dietrich Kamann, took photographs of the progress of the construction work in Auschwitz concentration camp, including the development of the farms. These photographs are contained in the album that has been handed down to the Central Construction Office.

Organizational structure of agricultural holdings

As early as 1940, SS men were transferred to Auschwitz, where they set up and organized an agricultural department and supervised the prisoners employed in agriculture. In 1941, 20 members of the camp SS belonged to this agricultural department, which was constantly being expanded with more staff. From the beginning, this department was headed by Reinhard Thomsen. As Department V6 - Agriculture, it was subordinate to Department IV (Administration) of the concentration camp, which was later referred to as Site Administration .

Immediately after the formation of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (SS-WVHA), the Agriculture Department was spun off from the camp administration of the Auschwitz concentration camp in spring 1942 . It was directly subordinated to the newly created Office WV - Agriculture, Forestry and Fish Management of Office Group W (Economic Enterprises) of the WVHA and was therefore no longer assigned to Office Group D (Concentration Camps). As a representative for special agricultural tasks of the SS-WVHA, Joachim Caesar was appointed head of the agricultural operations in the Auschwitz concentration camp on March 12, 1942 and held this position on site until the camp was cleared in January 1945. Caesar was subordinate to the camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp as the site elder and Head of the business operations in the area of ​​interest of the Auschwitz concentration camp, but in fact the head of the WV office group in the SS-WVHA Heinrich Vogel .

The Polish historian Aleksander Lasik notes that the structural set-up of farms is not sufficiently well known due to a lack of sources. It is certain that there was an independent administration of the farms on site. In addition to records management and a payment office, there was also a statistics, supply and technology department. The following areas were each a member of the Agriculture Department assigned " cereals , Legume and root crops , experimental cultivation of the rubber-containing plant Kok sagyz , horticulture and fruit farming , cattle , pigs , fur farming ( angora and Nutria ), poultry , horse breeding (there was a stud ), and Fishing industry ". There was also the office of landlord and his deputy and, later, Alfred Pflaum, an agent for pest control . The on-site veterinarian took care of the veterinary care in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

From the Labor Deployment Department of the Auschwitz concentration camp, members of the camp SS were assigned to the farms as command leaders for the prisoner commands deployed there. However, the area of ​​responsibility of the command leaders was determined by the agricultural management. The guarding of the prisoners employed in agriculture was temporarily the responsibility of the 5th guard company of the Auschwitz concentration camp, which is why it was also called the agricultural company.

Farms

The area of ​​interest of the Auschwitz concentration camp was suitable for cultivation in several ways for the establishment of the "agricultural experimental station for the east" operated by Himmler, which was to serve as a model for future agricultural use of occupied eastern areas by German settlers: On the one hand, the area was already used for agriculture before the German occupation and on the other hand, due to its size, it had sufficient land. Furthermore, this area was “ultimately, due to the local soil and climatic conditions as well as the unfavorable hydrographic conditions, an area that could serve as a test field for the cultivation of ecologically poorly developed regions”. The possibility of ruthless exploitation of the labor of thousands of prisoners also played a decisive role in this context. Due to the lack of agricultural equipment and the poorly nutrient-rich soil, it was not possible to adequately supply the camp complex with agricultural goods. In addition, crop yields and cattle were not only delivered to the camp kitchens, but also partly to the Wehrmacht or wholesalers, and were also sold on local markets. Even a production that went beyond the requirements of the camp would not have changed the inadequate feeding conditions of the prisoners: "Because the activities of the farms must not conflict with one of the fundamental purposes of the concentration camps: the indirect extermination of the prisoners".

Rajsko Horticultural Company

The camp nursery, which had existed since 1940, was moved to Rajsko in 1941 and was the first farm on site. In addition to vegetables, the horticultural company also cultivated useful and ornamental plants. There was also a fruit tree cultivation. Several greenhouses were built for plant breeding and accompanying botanical research was carried out. In addition, pigs were fattened in Rajsko and rodents were kept for animal experiments and angora rabbits were kept for wool production .

In the Rajsko horticultural farm, the plant breeding unit, consisting of female prisoners, was of particular importance. In the plant breeding station there, work was carried out in particular on Kok-Saghys' research into the extraction of natural rubber , which was important for the National Socialist German Reich and which was carried out in Raisko from 1942. In addition to growing Russian dandelions on test fields and greenhouses, biologists and chemists among the inmates had to conduct research in laboratories and also translate research literature from Russian into German. German and collaborating Russian agricultural scientists were also employed at the plant breeding station. The research work was supervised by SS leaders, who were mostly agricultural scientists in the civil profession. Thies Christophersen , who later denied the Holocaust, was also employed in the field of plant breeding . Research on Kok-Saghys was carried out at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Breeding Research in Müncheberg under SS specialist and Sturmbannführer Richard Böhme, and from April 1944 this was carried out exclusively in Rajsko. The superior of the SS specialists stationed in Rajsko was Caesar. The plant breeding station became the location of scientific conferences due to the interest in the research topic.

Baroque-style garden in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp (upper half of the picture, to the right of the gate of the fenced area); Aerial photo of the SAAF from August 25, 1944

The gardening command was also responsible for the maintenance of the green areas in the camp area, including the hedges planted as privacy screens near the gas chambers and crematoria of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp . An aerial photo taken by the US Air Force on August 25, 1944 shows a baroque-style garden in the courtyard of Crematorium II. It is known that this was put on by a female prisoner from the commando. Work details made up of male prisoners had to do particularly physically strenuous work, such as construction and transport work.

As early as 1942, around 300 female prisoners (plant breeding and horticultural command: mainly from Poland , France , Czechoslovakia and Ukraine ) and 150 male prisoners were employed in the horticultural business . By contrast, in March 1944 there were 435 female and 246 male prisoners.

Harmense poultry and fish farm

From 1941 a poultry and fish farm was set up in Harmense, where mainly female prisoners were used. The prisoner detachments poultry farming, fishing, rabbit breeding and the economic command existed. Breeding statistics were kept at the Harmense poultry and fish farm.

In the context of poultry farming, female prisoners had to look after an average of 2,000 chickens , 1,000 ducks and hundreds of geese and turkeys, among other things . Tens of thousands of chicken chicks were raised in a hatchery every year. In addition to caring for the animals, the inmates employed in poultry farming also had to clean the stables and pluck and slaughter the poultry. As a result of avian influenza rampant in Auschwitz , Harmense became a restricted area in 1943 .

In the ponds surrounding Harmense with an area of ​​380 hectares, fish farming began in 1941, in which prisoners had to do pond management work. This work included, among other things, pond cleaning, building and repairing dams, rearing the fry, feeding and fishing . The ashes of concentration camp victims from the crematoria were used, among other things, to smooth the pond floors and to build dams. Accompanying research on fish farming were under the direction of the service committed former concentration camp prisoner and fisheries scientist Diethelm Scheer carried out in a laboratory on site.

From December 1941 rabbits were also farmed in Harmense. Up to 3,000 Angora rabbits were kept for wool production; the female prisoners had to shear the animals, clean the stables and sort the wool. From the end of 1943 there was also a breeding of swamp beavers , pheasants , partridges and mastiffs in Harmense .

In the economic command, male prisoners were employed as craftsmen in building improvements and maintenance. Furthermore, this command commuted regularly with horses from Harmense to the main camp to procure food, clothing and building materials for the poultry and fish farm.

The number of prisoners employed at the Harmense poultry and fish farm rose steadily. In March 1944, 108 male and 445 female prisoners were posted there.

Commercial courtyards Babitz, Budy, Birkenau and Plawy

The Babitz, Budy, Birkenau and Plawy farms were agricultural production and breeding operations. In addition to growing and harvesting useful plants ( potatoes , fodder beets , grain , cabbage and rape ), the prisoners there were also responsible for breeding and caring for farm animals ( cattle , pigs , horses , geese, rabbits and sheep ).

Four women commandos were deployed on the Babitz farmyard, which is fenced in with barbed wire and surrounded by four watchtowers; one each in cattle breeding and dairy farming (together 40 Ukrainians) and two in field work (between 50 and 150 Polish women and Ukrainians). The women working in the field commandos had to pull the plow themselves from the spring of 1944 after the draft horses had been confiscated for the Wehrmacht . Two commandos consisting of male prisoners had to practice horse breeding and agriculture. In Babitz, the SS company Deutsche Lebensmittelwerke, represented in the camp complex with a bakery , butcher and dairy , operated a mill where the grain harvested by the prisoners was ground. In total, several hundred prisoners had to do forced labor there.

At the Budy farmyard there were two work detachments consisting of male prisoners, a zoo keeper and a forest detachment for forestry . The female prisoners were employed in vegetable growing, harvesting, forestry and the fruit tree nursery. They also had to deepen and clean fish ponds and build dams. In March 1944, almost 1,000 male and female prisoners had to do forced labor there.

The Plawy farmyard was mainly used for livestock farming. The female prisoners employed there had to clean the stables, look after the cattle and, to a lesser extent, sort vegetables in the cellars of the farm. Male prisoners had to take care of the horses and farm fish. The exact number of prisoners deployed there is unknown.

No information is available regarding the special production profile of the Birkenau farmyard. In March 1944, 204 male and 549 female prisoners were working there.

Living conditions of the prisoners employed in the farms

In the farms of the Auschwitz concentration camp, thousands of female and male prisoners had to do forced labor, some of them under the most primitive conditions, around 4,000 in 1943/44 alone Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp escorted to the site of deployment. Only some of the prisoners employed in agriculture were later housed in the subsidiary camps of the farms. In these sub-camps the living and livelihood conditions were mostly better than in the main camp or Auschwitz-Birkenau, so the inmates generally classified them as comparatively “good commandos”. The death rate was highest among the prisoner detachments from the main camp and Auschwitz-Birkenau employed in agriculture.

The prisoners employed in agriculture were able to "organize" additional food there to compensate for the insufficient food rations. Sometimes Polish civilians managed to get food to prisoners. Sometimes it was possible for prisoners from the subsidiary camps of the farms to provide emaciated prisoners from mobile prisoner detachments with food, and messages could also be transmitted across camps. Sick prisoners who were unable to work were threatened with selection . In the Harmense sub-camp, for example, prisoners fell ill with typhus, and female prisoners from Auschwitz-Birkenau brought in typhus in the horticultural business, from which not only prisoners but also members of the camp SS became ill and sometimes died. It has been proven that three female inmates became victims of medical experiments .

As a rule, after a roll call, prisoners in agriculture had to do forced labor from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., minus an intermittent lunch break. The working conditions of the prisoners deployed on the farms were very different, in addition to privileged work in the field of plant breeding, for example, female prisoners had to do heavy work cleaning and deepening the pond even in bad weather.

"We got up at two o'clock in the morning and at six o'clock we marched in rank and file five kilometers from the camp to the large agricultural areas, where we were supposed to do completely pointless work, either leveling the earth and making the borders of the kilometer-long fields Were used to do a better job and had to distribute manure. We weren't allowed to stand still, we always had to work, the guards had dogs, and the German inmate women would hit them with their clubs at the slightest violation and set the dogs loose. […] We should clean up the huge fish ponds. It was a terrible job. We had to roll up our clothes, put the scythe in the water, cut the grass, and then carry it to the bank. [...] When we got out of the water dirty and wet, the SS men still pestered us and had fun with us. "

- Wanda Tarasiewicz, a survivor of Auschwitz, on her experiences during forced labor in the farms of the Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp guard Johanna Bormann in British internment, photo from 1945

For example, prisoners were subjected to severe camp penalties for incorrectly performed work or the illegal procurement of additional food, such as carrying stones, dark cells, punishment companies or being transferred back to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The prisoners employed in agriculture were often harassed by members of the camp SS or Kapos and there was also severe abuse. In particular, the concentration camp guard Johanna Bormann was described by Auschwitz survivors as very cruel. Bormann was deployed in the Babitz, Raisko and Budy sub-camps from May 1943. She harassed and abused inmates through exercise, food deprivation, and beatings, and she beat her dog on the inmates.

Precise figures on the deaths of prisoners on farms who died as a result of exhaustion, illness, mistreatment and murder are not known. Jewish prisoners in particular were subjected to harassment and mistreatment, sometimes resulting in death. One Auschwitz survivor testifies that 60 young Jewish prisoners died six weeks after the Babitz subcamp was first occupied as a result of abuse. In the Babitz men's camp, some prisoners were shot and others died as a result of abuse. Several escapes and attempts to escape are known. Two male " gypsies " from the forest detachment in Budy fled, and 29 fellow prisoners were murdered by members of the camp SS as punishment.

Sub-camps of the farms

From 1941 to 1945, sub-camps were set up at the farms for a small number of the prisoners deployed there. In contrast to the farms, their affiliated sub-camps were subordinate to the administrative apparatus of the Auschwitz concentration camp. As a result of the restructuring of the Auschwitz camp complex into three independent concentration camps on November 22, 1943, the subsidiary camps of the agricultural operations were organizationally assigned to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. From November 25, 1944, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was again subordinate to the main camp.

Subcamp Warehouse management Number of inmates Nationality of the prisoners Time of existence Remarks
Babitz (women's camp) Erna Kuck, replacing Johanna Bormann 180 (constant occupancy) especially Polish, Ukrainian, Russian women March 1, 1943 to January 18, 1945 The camp was located in the former school building, most of the women were relocated to Auschwitz-Birkenau at the end of July 1944
Babitz (men's camp) SS-Oberscharführer Fritz Rosenow 160-200 Poles, Russians, Jews from Greece March 1, 1943 to January 18, 1945 The camp consisted of one or later two concentration camp barracks next to the school building
Birkenau SS-Unterscharführer Herbert Wiesinger 204 male prisoners (January 17, 1945) unknown Mid-1943 to January 18, 1945 Barracks on the grounds of the farm yard
Budy (women's camp) Elfriede Runge, from August 1943 Elisabeth Hasse and Johanna Bormann 455 (as of March 23, 1944) especially Polish, Czech and Russian women April 5, 1943 to January 18, 1945 The camp was located in the former school building together with a barrack in Budy; the women's punishment company was previously housed there until April 1943 . In mid-March 1944, another barrack camp for women was built in Budy. Relocation of the women to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in autumn 1944
Budy (men's camp) SS-Oberscharführer Hermann Ettinger, SS-Oberscharführer Bernhard Glaue (deputy), from October 1944 SS-Unterscharführer Kurt Weiland 200-400 Poles and Jews from France, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, Soviet Union and Greece as well as Sinti and Roma April 1942 to January 18, 1945 2 concentration camp barracks (with an interruption in autumn / winter 1942/43)
Harmense (women's camp) Marianne Rendel, b. Small 106 (men and women) Polish women, Slovak Jews and 16 Germans ( Bible researchers and women stigmatized as anti- social by the Nazi regime ) Summer 1942 to January 18, 1945
Harmense (men's camp) SS-Oberscharführer Bernhard Glaue, from April 1942 SS-Rottenführer Franz Xaver Eidenschinkt 106 (men and women) Mostly Poles, also Greek, Dutch, Czech and German Jews December 1941 to late summer 1943 Relocation to the Budy subcamp in late summer 1943
Plawy (women's camp) Flora Cichon about 200 especially Russians, occasionally Polish and Hungarians, two German Kapos January 3-18, 1945 Concentration camp barrack
Plawy (men's camp) about 200 Poles, Russians, eight Slovak Jews December 1944 to January 18, 1945 Concentration camp barrack
Raisko Flora Cichon, Anneliese Franz, Johanna Bormann about 300 female prisoners Polish women, Ukrainians, French women, Czech women, Yugoslav women and Germans, including many Jewish women June 1943 to January 18, 1945 Barrack camp on the grounds of the horticultural company

Evacuation of the sub-camps of the farms

Like most of the prisoners from the main camp and the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, in the course of the evacuation of the camp complex due to the war, the prisoners employed in the farms also had to take death marches between January 18 and 23, 1945 , mostly via Pless and Sohrau to Loslau . When they arrived at the assembly point, they were taken by freight trains to concentration camps further west. A small group of inmates from Plawy was herded westward on foot. Horses, cattle and geese from the Plawy farmyard were joined to this group of prisoners due to the lack of transport. Members of the camp SS expected a return, as can be seen, for example, from the fact that Caesar ordered the emptying of the water installations in Raisko to prevent frost damage during the camp evacuation.

On the afternoon of January 27, 1945, Soviet units of the 1st Ukrainian Front liberated the largely evacuated Auschwitz concentration camp.

Legal processing

Of the materials used both in farms and its affiliated subcamps members of the camp SS, most were after the end of the war in Allied internment. Some were transferred to Poland and sentenced by Polish courts to several years' imprisonment, for example two SS guards deployed at the Birkenau farmyard. For her crimes committed in the Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps , Johanna Bormann was sentenced to death in the Bergen-Belsen trial by a British military court and executed in December 1945.

Caesar was also interned by the United States until January 1949. Caesar was not prosecuted, but was a witness in 1947 in the Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS and in 1964 in the first Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt .

In the Federal Republic of Germany, several preliminary investigations into the murder of prisoners employed on the farms due to a lack of evidence or the inability to identify the perpetrators were discontinued. A command leader charged with the murder of three female prisoners was acquitted in 1985 after a trial "because the Stuttgart Regional Court considered the testimony to be too uncertain after more than 40 years".

Commemoration

In April 2001, information boards were put up at the entrance to the former Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp to commemorate the expulsion of the Polish residents from the SS area of ​​interest. Some buildings of the farms and sub-camps still exist today and are partly inhabited by the residents or used economically. On the former school building in Babice a memorial plaque has been commemorating the suffering and death of the concentration camp prisoners in this sub-camp since 2004; a plaque was also placed on the house of today's gardening administration in Rajsko.

In the documentary theater piece The Investigation by Peter Weiss from 1965, the song “Song from the end of Lili Tofler” reminds of the dramatic death circumstances of this female prisoner. Tofler, also written as Lilly Toffler, was a young Slovak Jewish woman employed in the Raisko plant research station, who was shot on September 21, 1943 because of a letter she found to a fellow inmate after she was admitted to Block 11 .

In memory of the Jewish Holocaust victims from Hamburg , the American artist Ronald Jones created in Hamburg-St. Georg, a garden monument with the Cosmic Garden . An ornamental garden in the courtyard of Crematorium II in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp was used as a template by female prisoners of the horticultural detachment. This garden can be seen in an aerial photo taken by the US Air Force on August 25, 1944.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Angelika Königseder: The origin of the camp and the "area of ​​interest" Auschwitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 83.
  2. ↑ a b Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 276.
  3. ↑ Rudolf Höss: The Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. In: Commandant in Auschwitz. Autobiographical notes by Rudolf Höß. Edited by Martin Broszat, dtv dokumente, Munich 1981, 8th edition, p. 178.
  4. ↑ Angelika Königseder: The origin of the camp and the "area of ​​interest" Auschwitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 85.
  5. ↑ Angelika Königseder: The origin of the camp and the "area of ​​interest" Auschwitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 85f.
  6. ^ Niels Gutschow : Ordnungswahn. Architects plan in the "Germanized East" 1939–1945. Gütersloh 2001, ISBN 3-7643-6390-8 , p. 91.
  7. ^ A b Niels Gutschow: Ordnungswahn. Architects plan in the "Germanized East" 1939–1945. Gütersloh 2001, ISBN 3-7643-6390-8 , p. 139.
  8. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of the events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945. Hamburg 1989, p. 250.
  9. ^ Niels Gutschow: Ordnungswahn. Architects plan in the "Germanized East" 1939–1945. Gütersloh 2001, ISBN 3-7643-6390-8 , p. 195.
  10. ^ Niels Gutschow: Ordnungswahn. Architects plan in the "Germanized East" 1939–1945. Gütersloh 2001, ISBN 3-7643-6390-8 , p. 195.
  11. ^ Philipp Weigel: Terror does not educate: On the use of photographs in the exhibitions of Polish Shoah memorials. In: Jörg Ganzenmüller, Raphael Utz: Memorial sites between memorial and museum. Böhlau-Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2016, p. 61f.
  12. ↑ a b c d e Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 314.
  13. ↑ See Susanne Heim : Calories, Rubber, Careers. Plant breeding and agricultural research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes 1933–1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89244-696-2 , pp. 177ff., Isabel Heinemann: “Race, settlement, German blood”: The race and settlement main office of the SS and the racial reorganization of Europe . Wallstein, Göttingen 2003 ISBN 3-89244-623-7 , pp. 100, 611f.
  14. ↑ a b Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 315f.
  15. ↑ Aleksander Lasik: The SS occupation of KL Auschwitz. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 349.
  16. ↑ Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 313f.
  17. ↑ a b Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 317.
  18. ↑ a b Andrea Rudorff: Rajsko. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 295.
  19. ↑ a b c d e Franciszek Piper: The exploitation of the labor of the prisoners. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume II: The Prisoners. Conditions of existence, work and death. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 119.
  20. ↑ a b c d e f Andrea Rudorff: Rajsko. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 296.
  21. ^ Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices, victims and what became of them. Lexicon of persons. Frankfurt / Main 2013, p. 80.
  22. ↑ Irena Strzelecka, Piotr Setkiewicz: construction, expansion and development of the KL Auschwitz and its satellite camps. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 124.
  23. ↑ a b Andrea Rudorff: Rajsko. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 297.
  24. ↑ Ronald Jones Cosmic Garden. In: hamburg.de. Archived from the original on February 20, 2007 ; accessed on March 30, 2017 .
  25. ↑ a b Andrea Rudorff: Harmense. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 247.
  26. ^ A b Franciszek Piper: The exploitation of the labor of the prisoners. in: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume II: The Prisoners. Conditions of existence, work and death. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 120.
  27. ^ A b Franciszek Piper: The exploitation of the labor of the prisoners. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume II: The Prisoners. Conditions of existence, work and death. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 119f.
  28. ↑ a b c Andrea Rudorff: Harmense. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 248.
  29. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of the events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945. Hamburg 1989, p. 258.
  30. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Babitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 179f.
  31. ^ Franciszek Piper: The exploitation of the labor of the prisoners. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume II: The Prisoners. Conditions of existence, work and death. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 121.
  32. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Babitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 180.
  33. ↑ Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, pp. 309, 311.
  34. ↑ a b Andrea Rudorff: Budy (farmyard). In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 202.
  35. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Budy (farmyard). In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 202f.
  36. ^ Andrea Rudorff: Pławy. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 291f.
  37. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Babitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 182f.
  38. ↑ a b c Andrea Rudorff: Plawy. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 292.
  39. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Harmense. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 249.
  40. ↑ a b c Andrea Rudorff: Babitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 181.
  41. ^ Franciszek Piper: The exploitation of the labor of the prisoners. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume II: The Prisoners. Conditions of existence, work and death. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, pp. 120f.
  42. ↑ Quoted from: Angelika Königseder: The emergence of the camp and the "area of ​​interest" Auschwitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 86.
  43. ↑ a b Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices, victims and what became of them. Lexicon of persons. Frankfurt / M. 2013, p. 60.
  44. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Babitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 179f.
  45. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Babitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 179.
  46. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Budy (farmyard). In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 203.
  47. ↑ Irena Strzelecka, Piotr Setkiewicz: construction, expansion and development of the KL Auschwitz and its satellite camps. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, p. 118.
  48. ^ Sybille Steinbacher : Auschwitz: History and Post-History. Verlag CH Beck , Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-50833-2 , p. 49.
  49. ↑ Information based on Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 1999, pp. 118–124 and Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (ed.): The Place of Terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, pp. 179ff., 182f., 201ff., 247ff., 291ff., 295ff.
  50. ^ Andrzej Strzelecki: Final phase of KL Auschwitz - evacuation, liquidation and liberation of the camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 1995, p. 156.
  51. ^ Andrzej Strzelecki: Final phase of KL Auschwitz - evacuation, liquidation and liberation of the camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 1995, p. 243.
  52. ^ Andrzej Strzelecki: Final phase of KL Auschwitz - evacuation, liquidation and liberation of the camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 1995, p. 244.
  53. ^ Andrzej Strzelecki: Final phase of KL Auschwitz - evacuation, liquidation and liberation of the camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 1995, p. 255.
  54. ^ Andrea Rudorff: Birkenau farmyard. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 183.
  55. ↑ Susanne Heim: Calories, Rubber, Careers. Plant breeding and agricultural research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes 1933–1945. Göttingen 2003, p. 177.
  56. ↑ Introduction to NMT Case 4 - USA v. Pohl et al. ( Memento from July 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on www.nuremberg.law.harvard.edu
  57. ^ First Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial - Register of Witnesses and Experts. (pdf) , p 12. The tape recording of the hearing Caesars was October 2013 from Frankfurt Fritz Bauer Institute published online ( Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial: interrogation record Dr. Joachim Caesar. (audio tape recording, HHStAW Abt 461 - Public Prosecutor at LG. Frankfurt am Main. Date of photo: March 5, 1964) ).
  58. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Budy (farmyard). In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 204.
  59. ↑ a b Andrea Rudorff: Babitz. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 182.
  60. ↑ Andrea Rudorff: Rajsko. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Vol. 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. Munich 2007, p. 298.
  61. ↑ Ulrich Engel: "Remember what they did to you in Auschwitz." Peter Weiss' oratorio "The Investigation" and Luigi Nono's composition. In: Peter Weiss Yearbook for Literature, Art and Politics in the 20th Century. Röhrig Universitätsverlag, St. Ingbert 2003, p. 91.
  62. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of the events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945. Hamburg 1989, pp. 604f.
  63. ↑ Cosmic Garden. In: bildarchiv-hamburg.de. Retrieved March 30, 2017 .
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